Generally, two basic methods exist for private individuals to clean the exterior of their automobiles and light trucks. One of these methods is hand washing. A hand wash generally is accomplished with a great deal of personal physical work. Most of the scrubbing and rubbing is provided by muscle power. Garden hoses, buckets, hand brushes, sponges and drying cloths are the typical tools. High pressure water hoses or rotating brushes driven by water pressure also are available, and frequently are used to assist the primarily human muscle powered efforts.
A second, highly popular method of washing private automobiles is to visit a fixed commercial car wash facility. Most of these facilities employ elaborate automatic machinery, including moving conveyors to carry or push a car through a sequence of stations, each performing a specialized function. Typically, a first station may spray the car with a soapy wash. A second station applies rotating brushes to the front and sides of the vehicle. Another station applies a brush or oscillating elongated scrubbing cloths to the top of the vehicle. Yet another station brushes the front and back; and another applies a water rinse. Occasionally, additional stations are used to apply a wax or polish; and a final station generally blows hot air to dry or nearly dry the vehicle.
The economies of operating such a facility and customer demand usually require that the customer be processed relatively quickly, usually within eight to 15 minutes. Because cars must continuously travel through the various stations of such an automatic car wash facility, the time spent at each of the stations by any individual vehicle necessarily is small.
Usually, in order to get a dirty automobile or light truck clean, brushing is required. Brushing invariably produces some scratching or abrasion of the surface finish. Even though such abrasion is generally almost unnoticeable, some car enthusiasts advise never using such an automatic car wash. Brushing also may damage the radio antenna or car trim, particularly if the trim is somewhat loose at the time the car is passed through the commercial car wash facility.
Some commercial car wash facilities provide brush-free washes. These brush-free washes usually employ very high pressure water sprays or large amounts of hand labor to clean a dirty automobile or light truck quickly. High pressure sprays themselves may cause damage, such as loosening or removing trim, forcing water into undesired openings, or creating leaks. Brush-free car washes also may produce a car which is less than totally clean; or such car washes may take longer than a brush-based system.
Even if an ideal brushless, high speed commercial car wash facility, which overcame all of the disadvantages of current facilities, were to be designed, there still is the disadvantage of traveling to such a facility in order to obtain a car wash. Typically, persons desiring to have a car washed at a commercial facility need to do it on their time off, which means that such facilities are crowded on the way to work, the way home, lunchtime, or over weekends and holidays. As a result, persons frequently need to wait in line in order to get the car washed; and the total time consumed for the washing of the car, from the time a person enters the facility until he or she leaves that facility, is significantly greater than the actual time required for the wash itself. These are significant disadvantages, and result in a substantial waste of time for persons who rely upon commercial car wash facilities for cleaning their vehicles.
Attempts have been made to provide car wash facilities which do not require the user of the vehicle to drive to a commercial facility, and which also do not require hand washing by others or by the owner of the vehicle. One such vehicle washing device is disclosed in the U.S. patent to Horwitz U.S. Pat. No. 3,401,707. This patent is directed to a portable vehicle washing device which is carried to a position adjacent the vehicle. One set of pipes extends along the length of the vehicle, adjacent its side; and another circular pipe is extended over the top of the vehicle. Water under pressure then is applied to the pipes, and nozzles spaced in the pipes spray water under pressure onto the vehicle. This patent represents an attempt to provide a compromise solution between hand washing of a vehicle and a commercial car wash. The device can be erected in almost any location where water is available. A disadvantage, however, is that the portability of the device necessarily limits its effectiveness. It also must be moved from one side of the vehicle to the other, or from one position adjacent the vehicle to another one, in order to complete the washing cycle.
Another system which has been designed to overcome some of the disadvantages mentioned above is disclosed in the patent to Moncourtois U.S. Pat. No. 5,329,949. This patent is a dedicated car wash box which is located within a garage. This device, however, requires the vehicle to move through a nozzle station adjacent the door opening as the vehicle is driven into the garage. Once the vehicle is inside, the washer elements are turned off; and the vehicle is allowed to dry within the garage. This is a dedicated system, which is located at the entry to the garage. It always is in place, and relies upon a single pass through the washing station for the car wash operation.
Other patents directed to portable or individual car wash systems have been obtained. One of these is the U.S. patent to Strickland U.S. Pat. No. 5,638,843. This patent is a portable, collapsible car wash device in the form of a U-shaped set of vertical and horizontal conduits. The device is set up; and the vehicle then is driven through the water spray to wash it. In its manner of operation, the device of this patent is similar to that of the Montcourtois patent described above. Strickland, however, is designed to be set up in any convenient location.
Two other patents directed to a similar technique are the patents to Downey U.S. Pat. No. 5,255,695 and Butts U.S. Pat. No. 5,413,128. Both of these patents require a rather elaborate, permanently installed car washing station. In Downey, the nozzles are fixed and the car is driven through them from one end to the other. In this respect, the device resembles a small commercial car washing facility. In the Butts patent, the car wash station includes a movable fluid dispensing system which moves back and forth over a stationary car. The devices of both of these patents are intended for personal car wash applications; but clearly they require a dedicated space solely for the use of the car wash mechanisms.
It is desirable to provide a vehicle washing system which overcomes the disadvantages of the prior art mentioned above, which reduces cost, inconvenience, effort and wasted water, and which also may be installed in home garages, long term parking facilities, or on a platform placed over a parked vehicle.